cinemajesty Director Niels Arden Oplev gets his U.S. independent debut after his international success in season 2008/2009 with adapting the first part of Stieg Larsson's Millinium trilogy "The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo". In "Dead Man Down" the director gets the full treat by U.S. producer Neal H. Moritz with a 30 Millions U.S. Dollars production budget to translate a solidly written screenplay by former actor J.H. Wyman and utterly fails bring thrilling suspense to screen.The overall ready-to-go cast around Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace and Terrence Howard with further supports from Isabelle Huppert, playing Rapace's mother, F. Murray Abraham, giving an alibi mentor to Farrell's character and a pale looking Dominic Cooper, who seems to be in the fading from the picture. Niels Arden Oplev takes no chances in a collaboration with cinematographer Paul Cameron. The picture's coverage comes out stale by using uninspired slow-dolly-shots on horizontal planes in stretched-out inactive dialogue scenes to give "Dead Man Down" unnecessary dramatic flavors without reaching any momentum of suspense.When the opening scene rolls out, there was still some credit to follow the story-line with interest before the director loses his grip on the motion picture. The cast left only most of the time with dead beats of staring eye-lines into nothing. The chemistry of main characters of Victor and Beatrice are hardly translated into on-screen actions. They mostly stand or seat in an fair interpreted production design by Danish-import Niels Sejer, presenting the usual gritty New York settings with no surprises. Again Director Niels Arden Oplev makes no use of the production value giving to him. Angles on the shot list come out unbalanced. Actors look confused on-screen, creates the feeling that "Dead Man Down" hardly came together in rough-cut-stage.Producers and writer disappointed with the outcome of "Dead Man Down", delaying the preliminary release date from Fall 2012 to Spring 2013. Experienced French editor Frederic Thoraval gets brought to fix what can be fixed, which is usually the all familiar sledge hammer treatment in the final sequence of the picture. Unfortunately by then, the specter does hardly care what happens to the characters in the resolution scene with no suspense given. The forecast of Niels Arden Oplev already finishing his director's job on a remake of the mediocre thriller "Flatliners" from 1990 for Columbia Pictures seems to be in vain.

Floated2 Dead Man Down starring Colin Farrell. Here he is required to reprise his facially immobile routine as Victor, a New York gangster who's part of a crew run by tough guy, Alphonse Hoyt (Terrence Howard). Alphonse is being menaced by people who are sending strange anonymous messages; meanwhile, Victor finds himself attracted to his troubled neighbour Beatrice (Noomi Rapace), who lives with her hearing-impaired mum, (Isabelle Huppert). Dead Man Down soon collapses into violent and boring nonsense. The film is a forgettable crime thriller with twists that come too late that barely matter to move the plot forward. The acting is what we would expect from a film of this quality. The film tends to drag on at several points and is focused on parts where we have seen before, in greater crime drama thrillers.

dglink A man intent on revenge for the murder of his family; a vengeance-seeking woman scarred both physically and emotionally; a ruthless crime lord; a gang of hired Albanian killers who discover a dangling thread from a two-year-old hit job. From seemingly unrelated scenes that open the film, these and other characters interact and react over the course of director Niels Arden Opley's "Dead Man Down." Each character's mysterious background unfolds slowly, which may try impatient viewers seeking an all-action movie. Although bursts of violence erupt occasionally, J. H. Wyman's script moves at a leisurely, some times snail-like pace. The shifting relationship that develops between the facially disfigured woman, sensitively portrayed by Noomi Rapace, and Colin Farrell, whose scars are hidden within, moves slowly, but convincingly, although their meeting is an "only in the movies" coincidence.Farrell and Rapace head a solid cast of pros that includes Terrence Howard, Dominic Cooper, and strong cameos by F. Murray Abraham, Armand Assante, and Isabelle Hupert. Although Howard comes across as too cultured and educated to be a crime lord, Farrell is particularly fine in an understated internalized performance that restrains the anger and pain just beneath the surface. However, the leisurely pace of J. H. Wyman's script confuses at times and only throws in occasional bursts of violence to keep viewers awake. Paul Cameron's gritty cinematography captures the dark grimy side of Philadelphia, and classic ocean liner buffs will be excited by a brief glimpse of the derelict SS United States, slowly decaying at a lonely pier.Although the catchy title is good and the movie marketed as an action-crime thriller, the thrills are fairly thin, and the plot rather routine and predictable. Buoyed by a talented cast, "Dead Man Down" is a notch above a good made-for-TV movie or prime-time crime-series episode. Patient viewers will be satisfied, action seekers disappointed, but fans of Colin Farrell will consider the film's two hours time well spent.

bowmanblue This is going to be a short review. Not because 'Dead Man Down' is bad, but because - quite simply - it's nothing that hasn't been seen before. Colin Farrell is a man who's had his family killed. He therefore seeks revenge (and along the way meets a potential love interest).It's been done a thousand times before, sometimes better, most times worst. However, the two leads - Colin Farrell and Noomi Rapace - are A-list and therefore bring enough quality and chemistry to this film to elevate it above the masses of similar offerings, plus it's stylishly directed as well.If you like action, if you like thrillers, if you like revenge movies, or if you simply like the two main leads, then you'll probably find this watchable. Not great, not bad but certainly not a complete waste of nearly two hours of your life.